Southeast Asia forum

Since we are short on time we decided to skip Hanoi in favour of Cambodia and Central-South Vietnam.
Now my question is; what is the best way to get from Luang Prabang in the afternoon to Da Nang the same day or the day after.
There are 2 options:

- Fly with Vietnamair to Hanoi (arrival 15u35) and take another flight with vietnamair to Da Nang (departure 16:30 or 19:10)
- Fly to Hanoi (same flight) and take the nighttrain wich leaves at 19:00 in Hanoi. (preferred option)

Now, the airport is quite a long way from the railwaystation.
Is there enough time to make it?

Another problem is the advance booking of the train tickets. I read about vietnamimpressive who ships the tickets abroad; is that recommended?

Do planes mostly leave and land on time or is it Lao-time? :)
So is it to big a risk to book a connecting flight on the same airport?

I can't be of much help but I can say that assuming your flight lands on time you should have no problem getting to Hanoi Train Station for the 1900 train. If you get a taxi (make sure you go to the official taxi rank and it should only cost $15) then it'll take less than an hour. Even the cheaper bus / minibus options will be fine, but they will drop you off centrally and then you'll need to get a taxi to the train station (or walk but not advisable with a heavy backpack). The problem, as you say, is tickets and it really would be a big risk to wait until you arrived - I'm afraid I can't advise on that.

Re your 2 flight option, have you looked at flying to HCMC and onto Danang? I've not looked at it but HCMC tends to be a cheaper hub to fly through.

Thanks a lot for the useful information!
I guess I'll take the risk and make the train connection.
Now I just have to book some tickets in advance, so I will contact vietnamimpressive with my question.

It seems HCMC isn't really an option from Luang Prabang, but good suggestion anyway :).

Please login to add a reply

You need to be a Travelfish member to be able to add a reply to this post. Please use the button below to log in. After logging in you'll be returned to this page automatically to add your post. Not a member? Join up here.